Trump for the left? Howard Schultz’s Starbucks career could be a double-edged sword

Howard Schultz, chairman and founding father of Starbucks Corp., speaks throughout a convention at the Economic Club of New York in May 2017.

The very factor that units Howard Schultz other than many different would-be presidential contenders could additionally be the factor that will maintain him from successful the White House, analysts say.

Schultz stands other than individuals like Sanders, Warren and others by advantage of his management of the Seattle-based espresso firm. But in the age of Trump, that could work in opposition to him.

“A businessman with no government experience, however well-intentioned, might make people think — ‘hey, we just did that,’” Greg Valliere, chief world strategist of Horizon Investments, instructed MarketWatch by e-mail.

“It will be tempting to look for a Trump of the left,” says analyst Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia. “But it’s not clear that Democrats are really looking for a person with a business background to lead their party,” Kondik mentioned by way of e-mail.

While Schultz says he’s fascinated by choices, he’s speaking about insurance policies — or criticizing them. Interviewed on CNBC on Tuesday, he mentioned it involved him that “so many voices within the Democratic Party are going so far to the left.” He requested how issues like single-payer well being care and government-guaranteed jobs would be paid for. “I don’t think that’s something realistic,” Schultz mentioned.

On the latter challenge, Schultz is setting himself other than Bernie Sanders, in addition to two different potential Democratic White House candidates, Sens. Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand. All three have embraced a government-guaranteed jobs program — which occurs to have polled properly in a latest survey. Sanders additionally supported a single-payer “Medicare for all” plan when he ran for president two years in the past.

Running as a centrist could work in opposition to Schultz, Valliere says.

It’s “not a good idea, in my opinion, for a party that clearly is veering to the left. The activists are still angry over the treatment of Bernie [Sanders], who ran into huge obstacles at the Democratic National Committee.”

“The party activists would seem to be lukewarm at best toward someone who runs from the center,” Valliere mentioned.

Schultz seems like a conventional Democrat on many points necessary to the occasion, saying he was disillusioned in the Republican tax-cut invoice enacted final yr, and backing gun management measures in addition to homosexual marriage.

In one measure of his potential attraction in opposition to different Democrats — an Iowa poll taken in March 2017 — Schultz received below 10%. The ballot was commissioned by the management PAC of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who was proven at the prime with 18% of Democratic caucus-goers, in a area of 9 potential candidates.

While Schultz decides about the future, he’s now taking a look at very lengthy odds to win the White House, in line with oddsmakers at WagerOnline.ag. They give Schultz 50-to-1 odds to win the election — or worse than the odds of actor Dwayne Johnson, who’s at 40-to-1.